Trends in seniors' financial aid counseling and career counseling

The responses to questions regarding financial aid counseling show a small but significant increase in the quality of counseling when compared to 1983 responses. The percent of students who received "enough" information increased, while the percent who received "no" information on financial aid decreased. In addition, seniors have a greater awareness of the broad range of topics that concern securing and managing loans. Improvement can also be seen in the schools' effectiveness in providing assistance in career and placement counseling. The percentage of seniors who said the school was "very helpful" in career choice counseling increased from 11.2 percent to 18.6 percent. In placement counseling, the percent who responded in the "very helpful" category almost doubled. Despite the improvement in counseling during the past five years, most seniors say they have not received enough information concerning financial aid, and over 80 percent of the seniors rated their career choice counseling and placement counseling as "limited" or non-existent. Clearly, from the students' perspective, the schools could be doing a better job of providing counseling services to students.